Project information

CAIRN Educational Awards (CEA's)

Help 14,000 children in Nepal go to school by 2014 through Educational Awards. The Awards fund the children's school related fees and equip them with supplies which are essential for academic success. Their performance is monitored termly, both at home and at school, through trained social workers.

Charity information: The CAIRN Trust (Child Aid In Rural Nepal)

Need

In Nepal, education is still not compulsory and with 50% of the population living on less then 50p/day, education is an expensive commodity for most rural communities.
Historically, children attend school irregularly with no books, pencils or learning equipment. As a result, literacy rates are as low as 11% in some areas and school attendance very low.
As parents must pay for all secondary education costs,33% of children who start school age 6 drop out by the age of 10 years due to poverty.

Solution

CEA's alleviate this huge financial burden of education on some of the poorest families enabling their children to enrol and attend school regularly, and ultimately improve literacy rates. The Awards fund the recipients school related fees and bi-annually provides them with a bag of essential educational supplies including age and grade specific school uniform, stationery and books.
The recipients progress is monitored termly, both at school and home, through trained social workers.

What success will look like

Impact

It will increase rural school enrolment, attendance and long term rural literacy rates.
Through this, the children we have educated will be able to find better quality jobs and improve the level of wealth within their rural communities.

Risk

Children will not attend school - Termly monitoring will identify any poor attendance at an early stage & our social workers can address any issues keeping a child from attending
Lack of community support -Establishment of PTA's and School Management Committees, who play an active role
Not sufficient funds to complete a child's educational 8 year cycle - ensure that we have at least four years worth of funds before starting a child on an Award.

Reporting

Quarterly following our social worker visits
Project Updates on the website

Beneficiaries

Why Us?

CAIRN's Founders established Thomas's London Day Schools (TLDS) in the UK. The Thomas's family connections with Nepal go back some 40 years to the time when David Thomas was an officer in the 2nd Gurkhas. It was through contact with the villages and families of these cheerful, strong and resilient yet incredibly poor people that made David and Joanna determined to help.
Using their 34 years of educational expertise from TLDS, CAIRN are helping to improve the education system in Nepal.